1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to capturing ocular biometric data and using the captured ocular biometric data to authenticate users.
2. Background of the Related Art
Biometrics is a technological field involving the machine-assisted analysis of human biological and behavioral characteristics to identify people. Biometric data commonly used in biometrics includes fingerprints, hand geometry, hand-written signature, facial features, voice characteristics, and ocular characteristics such as iris and retina recognition. These characteristics vary at least slightly from person to person, and machines can discern these sometimes subtle biological and behavioral differences between humans at sufficient resolution to differentiate between people. The ability of a machine to accurately discern these differences between humans makes biometrics desirable for use in security systems. Biometric analysis is often used, for example, to restrict access to authorized personnel, where the personnel can be identified or at least have their identities confirmed using biometric analysis. The ability of a machine to repetitively and reliably process a large volume of data also makes such systems viable for use in high-traffic locations where many people have to be screened, such as at banks, airports, and military bases.
Ocular biometrics is one area of biometrics that focuses on identifying individuals by the distinguishing characteristics of the human eye. Within ocular biometrics, retina scanning and iris scanning are two technologies that have proven to be reliable, and are already widely used in many governmental agencies and commercial applications. Retina scanning, which is considered to be the more invasive of the two technologies, uses a device positioned near the eye to send a beam of light deep inside the eye to enable an image of the retina to be captured. Iris scanning has been more widely adopted, in part, because it is generally considered to be less invasive. Iris scanning is a process of recognizing a person by the unique pattern of the iris, which is the externally observable colored ring near the front of the eye. Although the coloration and structure of the iris are genetically linked, the details of the pattern are structurally distinct due to the unique development of the iris during prenatal growth.